Monday, May 09, 2011

On Assignment: Concert Pianist

Shooting in big, dimly lit rooms used to scare the heck out of me. I'd bring out all of my big flashes -- and borrow whatever others I could get my hands on. But still, I never seemed to have enough light to do what I wanted.

What I didn't know then was that it is usually better to let the ambient in a big room do its own heavy lifting, then tweak it with a little strobe. And by "a little," I generally mean speedlights set in the 1/8 power range, max… __________

This particular shoot was one we discussed at length on the Flash Bus tour, but we don't often spend much on the blog about embracing -- and tweaking -- the ambient light in a big, dark venue. Ditto the idea of embracing an incorrect ambient temperature.

For this photo I wanted something that did not really look lit so much as a look that was more painterly and ambient-influenced. So we worked a couple stops over the ambient, to try to create light that looked more natural than showy.

Here is the setup, with all of the light sources shown in the photo. I knew I was going to remove the light behind the piano in post when I placed it there. Very easy to do, and I am no longer bound by the same limitations as when I was shooting for newspapers.

All three are speedlights, and all are at low power. In fact, the background light and the kicker are probably both at 1/32 power or below. Given that, this shot would probably be harder to do with big lights. You need to hang out at an open f/stop to better allow that ambient light to paint at a decent shutter speed.

By hanging out in the low power range of speedlights, I can blend the room in nicely at, say 1/30th of a sec. (I wanna say it was ~f4 at ISO 400, also.) If I had an Acute2 pack driving my main light, I'd either be shooting at half a second or eating up much of that excess power with ND on the flash.

Nope, if I am gonna mix light in a darkish room, I want my flashes to live in a similar power neighborhood.

Speaking of that, I am becoming much more open to letting the ambient light burn in with its color cast intact. I can control the mix and any color shift with the shutter speed, and it blends in a way that gives an organic reason for the color scheme in the photo.

So if I turn off the flash (above) and just show the ambient portion of the exposure, you can see just how much of the photo is ambient light. I like this mix, even though in the end I pulled some of the red out of it in post and just left the warmth. This left the photo looking more natural, but not-at-all color correct. I spent a long time being anal about color temperature, and ended up with a lot of sterile-looking photos as a result. Trying to learn to go with the flow a little more these days.

As for the strobe, it is coming from what many people might consider to be an atypical direction. But we do tend to light rooms (with our continuous lights) from above, so that's what I did on Thomas -- and then blended the fill with this ambient light.

By pushing a small amount of strobe down from directly above (in a soft light mod) I can keep a natural looking light. And if it is balanced with the ambient in the room, I keep a natural legibility in the shadows, too.

Big dark rooms don't need to be scary. They just need a different shutter speed -- and not to be overpowered with too much flash.__________

37 Comments:

I was wondering... since the pianos tend to have elaborate and beautifully crafted working innards, couldn't you give it a very light pop and let it be caught on the reflection of the tilting piece (whatever its called).

If I may add something, don't you think the front of the piano is a bit too dark and dull? Personally, I would have though of lighting it, maybe from camera right at an angle, to bring out its shiny surface and shape. Or maybe you didn't want to bring it up to the viewer's attention and to compete with the player. Can you explain a bit more about your choice here?

Thanks, as always, for sharing. Love your blog!Re. the shutter speed: How do you keep the human subject tack sharp when you are working at such a low shutter speed as 1/30?I would have thought it impossible for a guy to keep his head perfectly still while playing the piano. Does it all come down to rear curtain sync?

Also...any chance of a font-size boost on the site? I spend hours on this site a week. In order to read without a headache, I up the browser magnification 3 times every time I come on this site. But then I have to deal with photo pixelation.

I really enjoyed learning about the set-up for this image on the Flash Bus Tour. It was the first time where I actually saw how just a few speedlites strategically placed can really compliment ambient light. I also really enjoyed learning about the lighting set-up for the young man playing the instrument outdoors. As always interesting, inspiring work.

The piano post was perfect timing for me - last week I shot a marketing event: large, dim room with only ambient light - fortunately incandescent, no worse. I went around to the table displays shooting the people and their product tables. The previous time I did this I used a Nikon SB800 into an 16" Ezybox via a cable and mounted on a light stand. Cumbersome, but fairly decent results. This time I tried the Lumiquest softbox 3 with same flash, holding it at arms length. This seemed to directional. I couldn't avoid shadows on the walls which were only 3 to 5 feet behind the tables, or specular highlights from the product signage, even with the signs on an angle. Am doing a whole lot of post and blessing fill light in Lightroom.

So, all of this leads up to asking you how you might work this kind of situation.

@ Clement - ya - they don't really like all the lighting equipment on the stage during a concert :o) I actually used this setup to do a portrait shoot last week and had great results but we shoot a lot of concert work on the stage too.

I'd also be interested in knowing about the post work to reduce red. Seems we end up with red or yellow regardless of the white balance setting.

Thanks David, I've been wondering how Eric Ogden achieves his awesome cinematic look and I think you've answered this question with this post. http://www.ericogden.com/#/commissioned-work/celebrities-+-music/0

Is it necessary to use gels to help blend the flash with the ambient light? Or is this achieved by using the slower shutter speed?

Thanks heaps for all the tips and inspiration, you've been a massive influence in developing my current style :)

You reviewed this shot during your Seattle FB tour stop, and I recall you referring to the main light mod as being a "poor man's octa" - and just to echo what a couple other posters have asked, what make/model is that?

Hi. In my case, I found the piano is too dark sometime. It's glossy, but not easy to differ the contour of the piano. Also I don't want to move the focus from the player to the piano. Some scene both player and instrument can be seen as a whole. I ended up by shooting portrait of the player through the opening of the grand piano.

What is your thoughs when I also want to include the piano, which is pretty dark glossy?

@陳一豪 I can't speak for David's artistic vision with this shot (and I agree that a reflection might have looked cool although probably nightmarish to get it to work right, especially if the piano was matte black instead of polished finish and/or the finish had any flaws/chips/dings) but, speaking as a professional musician, unless one is going for an "artsy" shot, the focus is usually on the musician and/or the musician in-situ rather than the instrument. I'll be interested in DH's take on this :)

Lastly... where the heck was this taken? I'm wracking my brain because it looks so familiar!

I apologize if this is a noob question, but I thought that when you combine the ambient incandescent light with strobes, you would get really weird colour temperatures (warm tones for ambient area, and colder bluish highlights for the areas lit with flashes). Or is that a given and just corrected in post-processing?

Am a mere mortal in front of you David, but just wished to share my frank view. If the final shot is the crop thats displayed in top, it looks bit blatant to me. While the 3rd one with only ambient is so much more juicy and shows the mood and state of the pianist. Could you have included more of the room with a longer lens to compress the frame and show the artist in same size? And somehow hung the light from further above instead of using the boom?

David,I had a hard time finding a portable boom and a means of attaching it to a light stand. I noticed the setup you have for "table topping" and hoped you'd be able to recommend a source for these items.